A little off topic I know, but I've been following it and to be honest it looks like the best trek game we will ever see. Not to mention the devs seem to have borrowed lots of subtle concepts from it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC5l9fCjTj4
Apart from the Borg cube type structure and its internls, it doesn't look very Trek like. From what I remember of the original Elite, it was very grind centric. Perhaps the STO programmers could factor the Elite ethos into their game instead? Let's see if this topic kicks off with any other Trek comparators, else I will have to move to normal gaming.
It's trek in terms of the weapons, you can target systems on ships to cause different effects. Exploration of the galaxy is kinda trek, just going about scanning planets, Earth type planets are worth more ect.. I think a lot of the missions and politics are similar as well, trying to promote that better future image.
I bought the game last week, so far have been content with the flying aspect of the game, looking forward to the "New Horizons" mod which will allow you to land on planets, It's a gorgeous (runs at max settings on my 2013 almost a gamer laptop) Playing with decent headphones and in the dark, I personally get a sense of Immersion that I can't recall feeling on EVE and STO, I appreciate the attention to detail in this game... however... The game does feel incomplete, being permanently entombed in your ship, wielded to your pilots chair throws a wet towel on the experience. The ability to land on Rocky Moons will help this somewhat in the upcoming expansion, but I can only hope the end goal is the ability to walk around stations, planets, even the interior of your ship and interact with everything to a degree. I know that something like this would be really difficult to implement, and will take quite some time, Hopefully interest doesn't wane to the point that the game never gets finished. Final thoughts: It's a little lean but what meat is there is delicious. The Free Demo needs to be reworked, It really gives no sense to what the game is to a curious outsider, who may be mulling this over....
Downloaded the "Trial Version" the other night and I remember what frustrated me so much about this game from its earlier versions back in the 80's - the 3D ship combat. Yes it's beautifully done, yes it's a highly accurate interpretation of how it should be done and done right, and yes I completely SUCK at it! I tried the different training missions and I realized I couldn't hit anything with the damn twin Gatling guns, especially if it was moving. I could barely clip the stationary nuclear waste canisters. I did okay with using the lasers but it was still a very frustrating experience overall. I was dissapointed more with myself than with the game, as 30 years later I still can barely fly and fight with the starter ship! Didn't even try to do manual docking - was already quite discouraged.
Livestream 'How to Make a Real World'. It starts at around 7:58 mark: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Et5Ivi_yIg[/yt]